Field
The present invention relates generally to auto-generated notifications triggered by delivery of postal mail, and more specifically to triggering delivery of an electronic notification based on geolocation detection and geolocation data associated with mail delivery locations.
Related Art
In addition to paper-based mail, society has become accustomed to instant and realtime social interactions. Most individuals expect expect frequent updates from such sources as Facebook likes, Twitter tweets, email message delivery notifications, and text message alerts. These daily communications provide members of society with welcomed instant social interaction.
Paper-based mail—or snail mail—has not kept current with modern society. Over the years, inventors have made various types of systems and devices for notifying residents of mail delivery. Some of the devices have focused on mechanical or electrical components that detect operation of parts of a postal delivery box. For example, in one of these contraptions, when a postal mailbox lid would be opened, a sensor triggered an actuator to ring a bell. Such device relied on extra hardware installed at each mail receiving location. Other examples were not much more elegant than that. Such mail delivery notification devices required extra expense and maintenance for continued operation. Further, there was no standardization of mechanism. Yet further, if a resident was not present when the notification was triggered, then the notification was not very useful.
In contrast to times past, email and other communication means provide information in seconds whereas traditional snail mail delivery takes days. The present disclosure is directed toward overcoming many of the shortcomings of previously available techniques for providing a notification of physical mail delivery.